Twenty-nine year old Katie Bender's dream of marriage ended when her fiance' died seven years ago. She's content as the Amish settlement's schoolteacher, that is, until a tornado destroys the schoolhouse and several of the area's farms. Supplies are low and the needs are great. Rebuilding the schoolhouse is a low priority. But Katie knows a lot about survivng tragedy and she simply won't accept that her days of teaching are over.

Seth Stutzman is a master builder who is in town to install beehives on his brother-in-law's property and to offer him healing and support following his wife's recent death. Beehives aren't his passion, but they're his livelihood since making a fatal error, while working on a neighbor's barn. Seth arrives just as a tornado is wreaking havoc on Hope Falls. In spite of his construction error, he finds it difficult to abvoid joining the work crew.